Charlotte Foust
cfoust at infostatsystems.com
Wed Feb 11 11:38:39 CST 2004
Maybe they were stable after being built (which depended entirely on the skills of the developer, BTW), but I can remember the nightmare of designing effective entry screens in dBase III and the limits I was *always* pushing. Give me graphical any day, thanks! Charlotte Foust -----Original Message----- From: MastercafeCTV [mailto:mastercafe at ctv.es] Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2004 9:21 AM To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving' Subject: RE: [AccessD] Next Version of Access 12 Musings on what mighthappen(RANT) Many people like us initiate his projects with Basic, Pascal or similar languajes. I remmeber with a smile Dbase III and Clipper for develope incredible database on networks. And 15 years then... All run perfectly under msdos 3.3 , but some end users want graphical enviroment, want news, want more capabilities (internet connectivity, excel capability, etc...) is in that moment when we found the problems.... Less stability, more maintenance, backups continous, more than 100 calls to our help desk, etc... I hope that LINDOWS, LINUX or any other software demonstrate that a computer programming in a stable platform. Or a law to forbbiden to companies like microsoft introduce programs with terrible mistakes and holes. We are the debugger for microsoft... But the time that we spent is totally free of charge for they, i think so Microsoft must be down his prices more than 50% to excuse the initial problems for the new releases. Juan Menendez =========================================== MASTERCAFE SL - NIF B-82.617.614 www.mastercafe.com Deleg. Asturias Tel 985.88.49.44 / 627.531.764 Fax 627.500.205 info at mastercafe.com juan at mastercafe.com Deleg. Madrid Tel 627.474.285 cecilia at mastercafe.com =========================================== -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Ken Ismert Sent: miércoles, 11 de febrero de 2004 17:56 To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving' Subject: RE: [AccessD] Next Version of Access 12 Musings on what might happen(RANT) I work for a small manufacturing firm. We have a DOS program that does heater size calculations that must be at least 13 years old. Is it up-to-date? No. Does it have a slick interface? No. Is it still useful? Yes. The engineering calculations it performs are just as valid today as they were when it was introduced. Why not rewrite it to use the latest technology, and code it with proper OO methodology? Well, it is tested and trusted. The users are familiar with it. It works. We don't have the source, so we don't know precisely how the calculations are coded. A rewrite would involve a long and exacting testing process. And what would we get? Something that does basically the same thing as before. Now, there may come a day when this program doesn't run properly on a new Microsoft OS. Or, perhaps we'll get a comprehensive new software package that subsumes these functions. But we can't afford just yet to divert precious time and resources from higher-priority needs to fix it. It simply isn't a profit-making proposition. -Ken -----Original Message----- From: Haslett, Andrew [mailto:andrew.haslett at ilc.gov.au] Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2004 9:36 PM To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving' Subject: RE: [AccessD] Next Version of Access 12 Musings on what might ha ppen (RANT) All true, but the issue raised was: "How many companies would still be running DOS if they had a choice? I bet a lot, because it is the function of the software that really matters in business, and not so much the underlying technology." The 'function of the software' of the many applications running today, simple would not be capable of running under DOS due to its limitations, hence the reason why alternatives have been designed. I'd say that companies wouldn't really care what the underlying OS is, as long as their apps of choice would run. I can't see many cases at all where an org would *choose* to run an application under DOS if they had the choice. This whole discussion of 'leave Access alone its not broke' is raised whenever new versions are released. Its unfortunate that many are unwilling to even consider the advances that could be made. I'd be interested to know how many here have actually used Visual Studio and/or programmed in .Net. If not, I don't see how you can pass judgement in this areas on possible improvements, advances or tools that you've not used. (Yes, I professionally program in this environment and consider the framework / languages and environment superior to that of the Access IDE, which I have thoroughly enjoyed using for the past 10 years). We work in a dynamic industry that is constantly changing. Some of us seem to refuse to adapt or accept change and others look to the future. Cheers, Andrew -----Original Message----- From: DWUTKA at marlow.com [mailto:DWUTKA at marlow.com] Sent: Wednesday, 11 February 2004 12:17 PM To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com Subject: RE: [AccessD] Next Version of Access 12 Musings on what might ha ppen (RANT) Technically speaking, Andrew, there are a LOT of companies running DOS. Any company that has a Windows 9x machine is still running DOS. (Of course, it's 7.1 and 7.2 for 95 and 98 (no idea what it is for ME)). After DOS 6.22, SHARE.EXE was added, which provided multi-tasking capabilities for the OS, and it is what Windows 9x uses. Windows 9x is technically a GUI, not really an OS, where as NT based systems are using NT, versus DOS. (You can't boot to DOS in an NT system, because DOS isn't present anymore. In ME, you couldn't directly boot to DOS, simply because MS wanted to make it more difficult to actually get to the true OS.) Drew -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com]On Behalf Of Haslett, Andrew Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2004 5:55 PM To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving' Subject: RE: [AccessD] Next Version of Access 12 Musings on what might ha ppen (RANT) >> How many companies would still be running DOS if they had a choice? I >> bet a lot, because it is the function of the software that really matters in business, and not so much the underlying technology. And you honestly believe that the capabilities (functionality) of DOS would support todays applications... You've got to be kidding me. -----Original Message----- From: Ken Ismert [mailto:KIsmert at TexasSystems.com] Sent: Wednesday, 11 February 2004 3:50 AM To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving' Subject: RE: [AccessD] Next Version of Access 12 Musings on what might happen (RANT) I guess I was trying to get two points across about open source: * Open source projects tend to have a much longer life cycle. I mean, how long has perl and BSD been around? This gives practitioners enough time to not only master their skills, but use them productively. * If you base strategic company assets on an open source platform, and it falls out of disfavor, you are not forced to rewrite/upgrade simply because it is obsolete. Since you have the source, you can maintain and extend it as long as you wish. It seems the longer life cycle of open source better matches the typical business life cycle of a software product. How many companies would still be running DOS if they had a choice? I bet a lot, because it is the function of the software that really matters in business, and not so much the underlying technology. -Ken -----Original Message----- From: Charlotte Foust [mailto:cfoust at infostatsystems.com] Sent: Monday, February 09, 2004 7:27 PM To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving Subject: RE: [AccessD] Next Version of Access 12 Musings on what mighthappen(RANT) >>But at least Open Source will never force you to abandon software you like. ROFTL Famous last words! Charlotte Foust _______________________________________________ AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com IMPORTANT - PLEASE READ ******************** This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and may contain information protected by law from disclosure. 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